Shego was used to waking up in the Montreal Lair. Hell, she’d had her ass served up to her by Kim more than enough times that she’d seriously thought about applying for Canadian citizenship; if only the Canucks wouldn’t have her imprisoned on sight, despite the futility of the gesture.
Waking up in Montreal had always been a bit of a leisurely, quiet affair given the anonymity that Drakken had actually managed to work hard enough to achieve and maintain – at least here. Shego could usually spend a few minutes lying in bed contemplating her life and other such philosophical topics before rousing herself to get on with the regrouping that was business as usual around here. There would soon be henchmen to hire, the previous staff of idiots having fled before, during, or after Kim Possibles arrival at whatever lair they’d previously been occupying. There would be training dummies to pulverize and obstacle courses to run as Shego sought vainly to bring her skills up to Kim’s insurmountable level. Overall, staying at the Montreal Lair usually meant something of a working holiday to the super-powered martial artist.
So, when she was awoken here by a feeling that was not unlike a hand grenade going off in her face, she knew something was up.
Holy God!
One minute, Shego was locked in the peaceful neverland between sleep and the waking world, dreaming dreams that would fade the minute she became aware again, and then her head was ablaze with torturous, stabbing knives of blazing fire.
What – Fuck!
Shego grabbed for her face as a shrill yowl of agony exploded from deep inside her chest and the pain seemed to triple thanks simply to her awareness. It felt as if she’d been stupid enough to jam a gas pipe into one ear and then spun the valve on the tank open. There was an unbearable pressure building up inside her skull with no sign of release in sight. If this Hell decided to persist, Shego might actually consider volunteering herself for the Trepani ritual, given the possibility of finding a doctor or priest willing to help her.
And as if that weren’t enough, the outside of Shego’s head felt like it had been thrust into the very heart of the Sun, and she was within only a few degrees of being instantly vaporized and wiped off the face of the Earth. But considering the roar of her own screams in her ears, she wasn’t entirely sure that would be a bad thing. Then there was the taste of her own fillings invading her mouth and her tongue feeling like it was being roasted by the small supernova that seemed to have enveloped her head for the time being.
…Ah – God!
Suddenly coming to awareness of the rest of her body, Shego felt her blood flowing like lava in her veins even as her bones were freezing within her. Her skin was being simultaneously incinerated and flash-frozen, leaving her quickly running out of tolerance for this Hellish sensation that seemed completely bent on her utter and total destruction, but not before robbing her of her sanity.
Then, just as abruptly, silence.
Total, blessed silence.
Thank the Good Lord…
Calming her breath, Shego felt her protesting muscles slowly coming down off of their fiery pedestals, relaxing as the Whatever-the-Hell pain lifted away from her body, fleeing from the super-thief’s prone form as though to avoid her wrath. A black-gloved hand reached up to Shego’s face, wiping the sweat from her forehead and trying to massage away the pounding monster migraine that was throbbing its way around her frontal lobe as though every percussion instrument that had ever belted out the 1812 overture – cymbals and cannon alike – were prancing around inside the very cramped space of her skull.
“God Dammit,” she breathed under her breath, wondering briefly at the source of her wake-up call from Hades. Sitting up, Shego tried to turn her mind to better thoughts:
Like training for her next encounter with Kim Possible for instance.
She couldn’t quite remember what blunder of Drakken’s had driven them into hiding this time, but they’d all kind of started blending together over the three years that she’d been fighting tooth and claw against the cheerleader. The girl may have had a hand in Shego’s current…handicap and her resultant inability to safely interact with people and make friends, but she sure knew how to fight. A slow, satisfied smile made its way onto Shego’s face as she remembered some of their more spectacular encounters and how much of a rush she’d gotten from scrapping with the girl.
And God do I hate admitting to that.
Opening her eyes, Shego almost felt her smile hit the floor, leaping from her face like it was a sinking ship. What the-?
Perched on the black stone footboard of her bed, one hand outstretched just slightly toward the villainess and white sparks fading from bright emerald eyes, crouched the one person Shego had never expected to see here. It actually looked like sparks were dancing between her slightly spread fingers, but the display was gone before Shego could be sure. But still, funny lights aside, the girl before her was a most unexpected sight
Kim Possible.
In all her redheaded glory.
Drawing her black duvet up around herself in an uncharacteristically defensive gesture, Shego took a moment to take in the sight before breaking the tension-charged silence.
The…woman perched in front of her was Kim Possible alright; Shego could tell from the overall feel of the scent-flavours wafting off her mind. But even so, there seemed something a little…different about her. The hair was the same, but the clothes were definitely something new. There wasn’t a crop top in sight – only a black tank top, revealing long, trim arms and a stylish, almost elegant S etched onto the heroine’s left collarbone and looking suspiciously like a tattoo. Even crouched, Kim appeared to have grown a few centimetres since Shego had last seen her, her arms and legs a little more tone than before. The hair was the same, but the eyes were a little brighter, a little older-seeming. And there were dark lines beneath them, as though sleep had been an elusive thing for the cheerleader for the past little while. Otherwise, everything else seemed to be in place as far as Shego was concerned. The slight fear and relief emanating from Kimmie’s mind smell-tasted genuine enough.
But still, what was she doing here?
Ever the student of subtlety, Shego finally broke the silence, “What the Hell are you doing here?”
The fear being absorbed by the green-skinned villainess’ sixth sense spiked, gaining an element of guilt, disappointment, and not a small splash of horror. Shego didn’t know what to make of that, but she saw Kim withdrawing a little, her sorrow growing. Dark forest green eyes narrowed in thought as Shego felt an increasing…wrongness hanging about the scene, like something was missing.
Just as she was about to inquire of her nemesis once more, Shego felt something brush against one of her legs as she shifted nervously under that piercing gaze. Something small and hard by the feel of it through her bodysuit. Looking down, Shego’s curiosity was piqued and she plucked the scorched chip of metal from her sheets, examining it more closely.
It was pretty badly burned, but it looked like it might have at one time been a small microchip. Now, it was a charred and useless scrap of silicon circuits. Turning the chip over in her hand, Shego saw the burned-out diode in the centre of the black square and gasped as everything suddenly fell into place.
It was one of Drakken’s mind control chips.
Abruptly, like a floodgate being opened, the past four years of her life returned to Shego, rushing back in seconds after having been briefly chased away by the unbearable agony of having the small chip forcibly removed from her head.
“Oh.”
The tiniest shadow of a smile left its ghostly touch on Kim’s lips at Shego’s simple acknowledgement of the turbulent past that she’d temporarily forgotten. “Yeah,” she chuckled mirthlessly as she lifted her chin in silent invitation, her intent clear.
Now that Shego remembered what had happened last night, her anger started to return full force. Anger at Drakken for dragging both of them to a humiliating place, at herself for being so weak that she fell so quickly – so willingly for the man’s trap, at Kim for being so affected that she couldn’t escape before Shego caught her, and at the world in general for letting all this bad crap happen to them. Then, there was the memory of Kim forcing her control over Shego, driving her from the room before the redhead had a little “talk” with industrial accident-boy. She had the clear memory of being locked in her room by her own body, free but imprisoned at the same time, of remembering the promise she’d made to Mom and how blindingly voluntarily she would have thrown it all away without Kim’s interference. How easily could her integrity have been completely shredded to pieces if her body had been hers to control?
Yes, it was clear to Shego what Kim was inviting from her: punishment. From the heartfelt, tearful words the ex-heroine had shared with her yesterday, it seemed Kim would willingly submit to any punishment that Shego asked for violating her mind with her telepathy. The slight tang of defiance floating off the young woman told Shego that Kim still believed that she’d done the right thing in making Shego leave and taking the matter upon herself and would still have done it if she were forced to repeat the experience, but she would yield to Shego if the villainess thought any differently.
Then, there was the growing comprehension as Shego realized what the fading whiteness in Kim’s eyes had meant, as well as the agony that had woken her up in the first place and the fact that there wasn’t a silicon phase disrupter anywhere close by – portable or otherwise. Apparently, Drakken hadn’t ever intended to honour their agreement and free her from his microchip. Of course, Shego could have figured that one out by just reminding herself of her former employer’s aggravating and infuriating rant from earlier. And so, left without a technological solution to free her partner, Kim had obviously fallen back on her own abilities, almost frying Shego’s brain in the process.
Well – it had felt like that at least.
And now here sat Kim, awaiting Shego’s judgement for taking such unexpected liberties – using her powers to take control of the fiery-spirited woman and consciously wielding a force of nature against her in the form of a bolt of lightning.
Releasing her hold on the duvet she’d wrapped around herself like a shield, Shego stood from the bed and walked around it to stand beside Kim with a sure, steady certainty – a confidence that was for her a defining trait. For a moment, she just stood and stared down at the redhead who wouldn’t meet her eyes for more than a few seconds at a time. For a long minute, the two women were frozen face to face, one crouched on the bed and the other standing beside, but both unsure of what to do now – how to deal with the aftermath of last night.
Then, in a move that surprised both of them, but seemed more shocking to Kim, Shego found herself standing very close to Kim with her arms wrapped tightly about the redhead’s shoulders, her own trembling unceasingly with the force of her pent-up emotions. Without saying a word, Shego buried her face in Kim’s fiery red mane and just broke down crying, the events of last night finally coming crashing down on her all at once.
She didn’t make a sound, but the hitch in her breath and the violent shuddering in her shoulders were more than enough for Kim to know what was happening to her partner. Shego felt the tears pouring down her face and she just knew she’d be embarrassed about this later, but for now she really couldn’t bring herself to care. Right now, all she could think about was how messed up her life was and how much she hated men like Drakken – men with so little integrity or honour that they treated their allies no better than the enemy – as if there were a thousand more where Shego came from…as if she was nothing more than a drywall nail to them…a bullet in an entire magazine.
And as she leaned on her all-too-willing companion, Shego felt her mind going back in time and then following the way her life had gone ever since her life had gone to Hell.
First, Drakken had manipulated her and Kim’s first meeting so he could get Shego on his side, and then he’d just kept adding to that one lie with every single word that came from his filthy, cowardly mouth. Then, when Shego was so sure she’d rid herself of the devious, detestable little fool and had seen the last she would ever see of him, he’d somehow managed to pop his repulsive blue head into her life again, claiming to have an innocent deal for her…a business proposition. She should have known not to trust him with anything ever again, but her need had been too great to ignore. Before this last week, Shego might have tried to make a grab for that vial or dragged her climbing claws across his blue face and cure be damned, but whether or not she’d managed to snatch that cure from him wouldn’t have been so big a deal to her. Shego had adjusted well enough to the life that vile snake had forced upon her. She’d adapted well enough to her new reality, understanding that Drakken’s violation of her biology had made her something of a lone wolf – like it or not…and for a time she’d been content with her life. Maybe she hadn’t been the happiest she could have been, but she’d been quite a loner for most of her life so it wasn’t really a massive change.
When it came down to it, Shego would have been content last week if every hope of her ever again living a normal life again had been exhausted, if she knew for certain that she’d be stuck like this for the rest of her life. She wouldn’t have liked it at all, but she could have lived with it.
Not anymore.
Reuniting with Kim after all this time had awoken something within Shego, an overpowering sense of strength and determination and – power – that made her feel that she could take down the Devil himself if Kim was in danger.
But if she were gone…
Maybe that’s what she was so afraid of about going soft; if Kim was with her, Shego didn’t feel like going soft was so bad a thing, but she knew she would just lose her mind if Kim were to be taken anywhere she couldn’t follow. Shego knew that the fight would simply leave her body and spirit if she were to become alone once more. She would completely lose all the will to live if she had to wake up alone to face this cruel, unforgiving, and malicious world.
That was thing though, wasn’t it? First Drakken had tricked her so easily it was shameful, and then Kim had unwittingly given her the keys to her prison, the gift of knowledge. And now, four years later – four years wiser – they’d reunited and cleared the slate between them to find something wonderful waiting for them – there for the taking. Now that Shego and Kim were on the same page – in the same script at last – they’d found that they could actually create something together. They stood to gain so much more from laying aside their sham of a conflict than they did in continuing their pointless blood feud.
And now Shego had found the most chilling truth in this whole affair:
Without Kim, Shego would be nothing. Where before she had been blissfully ignorant of the fulfilment and wonder to be had just a single breaking-and-entering away, now Shego would know that something was missing from her life and she’d be all too painstakingly aware of exactly what that something – or rather, someone – was. Now that Shego had allowed herself to open this Pandora’s Box that was in her heart, and might have been there for longer than she knew, she knew there was no going back. There was no chance at all for them to go back to the way things were; it wasn’t a simple, cut-and-dry math equation – like adding one to one and getting two only to take one away again.
When Kim and Shego had laid bare their hearts to one another, something inside Shego had changed – something that could never happen in something as impersonal as math.
But, oddly enough – bizarre as it might be – Shego hadn’t a single regret. She would never go back for all the treasures in the world. She really wouldn’t, and that’s what terrified her most about the changing relationship between her and Kim. The fact that she wouldn’t trade anything for the return to that invincible emotional armour behind which she’d hidden for almost all her life was so completely foreign to her that she couldn’t help fearing what would happen next now that her heart was in such a vulnerable place that she had vowed to never place it. She didn’t have a single urge to put that protection back on because she now realized the truth of it all:
It just wasn’t worth it.
That impenetrable fortress of harsh sarcasm, witty retorts and innuendoes wasn’t worth the void and utter pointlessness that she would be living through otherwise. All the sun baths and tropical vacations in the world couldn’t compare to this new, frightening but irresistible bond that was growing between her and her greatest enemy. That fortified Island upon which she’d tried so stubbornly to isolate herself had finally been revealed for the desolate, lifeless Rock that it always was, and Shego had no desire to return there – not when she’d seen Heaven.
No, the only option open to Shego now was to stay and work at what was quickly growing and blossoming between her and Kimmie, and do her best to help this thing to flourish into something unique and…beautiful.
And God help anyone who tried to split them apart or destroy their creation.
At that thought, Shego felt her sudden torrent of tears subside, and she slowly made her way back to the present world. Shego’s grip on her partner’s shoulders eased, as her embrace became ever less a desperate attempt to hide from the world and ever more a desire to simply hold and be held. Drawing her head back from Kim’s soft, silky red hair, Shego stood straighter and looked down into the bright, shining emerald eyes before her.
“Not one word,” Shego ordered, gesturing to make it clear she was talking about the tear tracks on her face. “Ever.”
Kim nodded slowly, a small, beatific smile lighting up her face and her bright, emerald eyes. “No big, Shego – but only if I’m still allowed to get close when this,” she shrugged lightly, “unspeakable happens again.”
Shego snorted once, her hands still resting on her other half’s shoulders. “That goes without saying.” She wiped her face to remove any lingering trace of her tears. “But I would love it if we could just stop riding this emotional roller coaster – I’m sick of it and it’s not fair that this shit is always landing on my head.”
Kim smirked, but not at her thief’s expense. “It’s not fair, but it’s life.” Then, before Shego could pull away, Kim drew her close with her hands buried deep in the long strands of the black wig the villainess wore, allowing her next words to be whispered straight into her ear. “But as bad as Life can be, as unfair and insane as this world or the next may get, I want you to hear one thing, Shego. I want you to understand this one thing if nothing else.” Kim paused for a single moment and Shego felt her own eyes closing as her newly reawakened empathy set itself on Kim’s mind, drinking in the fragrance of fear, of hope, of peaceful calm, of sincerity, and the greatest of these: Love.
“As long as there is a breath in my body,” Kim whispered gently, “As long as there is a beat in my heart,” her hands moved down to wrap around Shego’s waist in a loose hug. “As long as there is a single Star in the Heavens, and as long as you’ll let me, I will love you with all my soul.”
Shego’s closed eyes tightened even more as she felt them threatening to tear up again at the soft-spoken declaration from her redheaded angel. “Thank you,” she breathed across the scant few hair breadths that separated them.
Kim nodded silently, burrowing her head into Shego’s shoulder for a few moments before withdrawing and slipping from her embrace at last. “Listen, Shego – I know you probably heard me last night, but I want to say it again – I need to say it again-.”
The sudden spike of guilt and shame in Kim’s scent-flavours caused Shego to reach out to lay one finger on Kim’s lips before she could stop herself. “I know, Kim. If you really need me to say it, you’re forgiven.” The slight shudder of relief that swept through Kim’s shoulders at the absolution had Shego explaining before she could help herself. “In a way, I should be thanking you for keeping me out of that room, but that’s a story that can wait for another time, another place.” She smirked minutely, “Right now, I just want to get out of here; we can come back for my stuff.”
Kim nodded once more and pulled out of their comfortable, safe embrace. “Okay, back to business – I can do that.” She looked over at Shego, worry suddenly etching her features. “Is your head okay, you’ve got quite a burn there,” Kim pointed at her own temple.
“I-,” Shego stopped. Weird… “Actually, I feel great.” She did, and that was very odd. Kim just hit her with a lightning bolt; shouldn’t something be going wrong in her body by now? Oh well, time enough to think about all that later. “So,” Shego glanced around her room casually. “I’m going to go ahead and assume you searched the place before you tried to fry my brain.”
Kim smiled a little at that. “Yeah, I did.” A sick look came over her features, “I found a little more than I bargained for…”
“Oh, really?” Shego felt a brief swell of hope, but it deflated just as quickly when Kim’s expression remained downcast. “What is it?”
Kim looked away guiltily, coughing quietly, “No cure,” she turned back to face Shego. “I looked everywhere, I broke down every locked door, I tore apart every file cabinet, and I scanned every square centimetre of this place for secret compartments. Nothing.”
“Then what’s that?” Shego nodded her head at the small black box that she could now see sitting on the floor by the corner of her bed now that she’d stood up from it. It was a tiny box, too small to hold anything much, but it could easily hold one or two of those small vials.
“Oh, that.” Kim bent down to pick it up and fiddled with it, cracking it open a few centimetres before closing it with a snap and repeating. “I found the lab where Drakken used his…whatever it was to give you your Plasma.” She opened the box and showed the contents to Shego:
Three vials, all of them full.
“Apparently,” Kim went on, “Drakken wasn’t content to stop with you.”
Shego turned a horrified, disbelieving look on Kim as she picked up one of the vials. It was filled with an unappealing, transparent green solution – an identical match to the colour of her Plasma. “He can’t have more people out there like me…”
Kim shook her head. “No, I don’t think he does. It doesn’t look like anyone’s been in that room in years – there was dust all over the place and there’s something growing in the garbage can even.” The heroine winced a little as she thought of something she’d seen, coughing uneasily again. “I think his plan might have been for me or you to clean up that mess ourselves knowing full well what he planned to be using that lab for.” Kim rubbed her wrists lightly in an unconscious gesture, unaware that Shego was watching her every move with sharp eyes. “Then, he was probably going to lay someone down on that table to double his army of Plasma-charged super-thieves.”
The implication was clear. “Where is he?” Shego’s eyes narrowed as her anger rose. That worm dared to think that he could kidnap and defile her Princess with his vile, repulsive creation? Oh, she had to have a few words with him – that is, if Kim had left enough of him for her to deal with.
“He’s alive, Shego – I’ll tell you that much, but I don’t know if he can hear you.” Kim gently took the vial from the pale woman’s fingers and placed it back in the foam-cushioned box, snapping it shut with a sharp click. “You will never have to see him again, and that is a promise.”
Shego shook her head stubbornly, “No – I really need to see him. I can’t believe how arrogant he was to think he could-.” She looked over at Kim suddenly, “Are you sure that was meant for you?” She nodded her head to the small box still held in his partner’s hands.
Kim sighed. “Well, short of finding a printout of this latest scheme of his, yes.” She paused for a breath. “I was in his mind, Shego, and when I left it, I saw things…images, random thoughts and emotions. None of it really made sense, and all I know for sure is that he had something awful planned for us, for you especially, but he seemed to think that you’d be glad for it, like it was something you would want.”
Shego thought about it, “Oh, who knows with him? Could be he was going to have me inject you with this…poison. It’s the kind of poetic justice I wanted back then – before I knew the whole story.” Shego smirked a little suddenly, “So, what’d you do to him?” As shame flooded into the air from Kim’s mind, Shego reached out to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Hey, don’t feel so bad about what you did, Kim; you’re nothing if not fair, so whatever happened to him is probably closer to justice than what I would have done.” She sat down on the bed, pulling Kim down beside her. “I mean, you said he’s still alive, so you’re already doing better than I would have. Tell me – what did you do to him?”
Kim swallowed nervously, coughing quietly again. “I did quite a bit to his outside; dislocated his shoulder, half-strangled him, kicked his knee in, shattered his ankle. Maybe I cracked or broke a rib or three, but I don’t know for sure.” Kim shifted her sitting position on the bed, clearly uncomfortable with the entire Avenging Angel image she saw in herself as she remembered those minutes. “When I was in his mind, I stripped him of control and chained him up in the deepest corner of his mind.”
Shego stared at Kim in disbelief, “For how long?”
“Until I go back and free him,” Kim stated bluntly, “He’s still there, but I told him I wanted the five years that you’d been ready to give up for me. I might not remember to go free him though, given how exciting our lives are about to get.”
Shego let out a short bark of laughter, falling back to lie on the bed. “That’s funny, Kim – I toldja you were fair. Tough, but fair. Okay, so he’s unresponsive as a log by now?”
Kim nodded, “Without his mind to keep his body under control, Drakken’s body is a shell, empty of any thought – of any discernible sign of intelligence, although that could be considered an improvement. I dropped him off at Lakeshore General before coming back here to look for a cure. They’ll probably diagnose him as comatose or catatonic.”
Shego nodded slowly. “Justice,” she said slowly, seriously. She was impressed that Kim had actually gone to the trouble of transporting that vile lizard to medical help after all he had done to them. He wouldn’t have gotten that courtesy from Shego if she’d been in control of her body. Thank you, Kim… “So, Kimmie. What do you say we get out of here? There are a couple of toys from Drakken’s workshop that I want to take with me, but we don’t need to stick around.” She stood up and looked around at her bedroom. “And I kinda want to see this Lab that you found.”
“Okay,” Kim nodded, her unease rising fractionally, “But you won’t like it. I meant it when I said he probably hadn’t cleaned it since you were in there.” Her face twisted into a grimace again at some image that rose unbidden to the fore of her mind. “Well,” she stood from the bed and held one hand out to Shego, “Let’s get going.”
“Alright,” Shego accepted the offered hand and allowed herself to be lifted to her feet. Then, as they made their way out of the bedroom, Shego stopped suddenly, “Wait.” She trotted over to her nightstand and pulled a few things out of the drawer, tossing them carelessly onto the bed and moving on to her dresser.
“What are you doing?” Kim leaned casually against the doorjamb, remaining only halfway in Shego’s bedroom to avoid the taller woman as she darted around the room, gathering up clothes and assorted objects from her closet, an apparently rarely-used desk, and the tall black dresser.
“Well,” Shego threw an mp3 player onto the bed, “I kinda left in a hurry last time, so there are some things I left behind that I would have liked to have taken with me.”
Kim nodded as Shego’s pile on the bed continued to grow, “Just keep in mind that our carrying space is kind of limited right now, with both of us on your bike.”
Shego stopped for a moment. “Right, but when we eventually come back to clear out my stuff, I don’t want to spend any more time here than I have to.”
“Why not?” Kim pushed off of her leaning post and studied her partner’s movements. “It seems like this place could make a pretty good base of operations for when we finally get set up, and except for that one laboratory…”
Shego froze, considering Kim’s idea carefully. “It might work,” she still didn’t want to spend too much time in this place. It had been the safest place for Shego in all her eight years as a criminal, but then Drakken had destroyed the sense of safety and security with his latest botched plot. Shego knew she wouldn’t have had a good night’s sleep if she hadn’t been chipped. Or maybe it was being held so close to Kim that had eased her fear, but she knew this place didn’t feel as safe as it used to.
On the other hand, with Drakken gone and control of the facility falling to Shego and Kim…there was an opportunity to plug up any holes in the security system that she hadn’t cared to mention before. Yeah, she mused – I’ll bet Drakken’s left a lot of junk lying around that we could use. We areabout to take on a worldwide criminal syndicate after all… She nodded slowly, “This place still isn’t on any radars at all, or Drakken wouldn’t have been hiding out here after all this time. If we need a safe house…okay – deal. I guess the more places we have to stay, the better it might work out in the end.” Shego straightened and started for the door, stopping in front of Kim. “I still want to see that lab before we leave.”
Kim nodded silently, accepting that Shego would not be denied on this. “Okay, fine.” She moved out into Shego’s living room and sat herself down on the couch, looking up only when she realized that Shego was staring at her impatiently. “What?” Shego’s irritation drifted into her awareness and she suddenly understood. “You don’t know where it is?”
Shego snorted, “I woke up in the infirmary, and he kept that place spotless. I think that was mostly because he usually ended up there quite a few times whenever we stayed here; he was always fooling with something that would explode or catch fire spontaneously and without fail.” She started moving for the door again. “So, are we going to head out or do you want to spend even more time in my room?” She smirked suggestively, “I’m sure we could find something to occupy us.” She raised an eyebrow.
Without replying – but grinning widely nonetheless –, Kim stood up and followed behind her partner as they both strode out of the suite of rooms. “Your bed is certainly more special than an alley.” She brushed her hand through her bright hair. “But you’re wrong you know; you woke up at least once in that lab,” an uncomfortable unease slithered through Kim’s mind as a cough rose quietly in her throat, and Shego wanted to wrinkle her nose at the ashen, bitter taste in her mouth. “It wasn’t the best experience for you though, so I can understand if you’ve repressed the memory.”
Shego’s step faltered for but a second, but then she was back on track. Repressed? Shego had never even considered that she could have repressed anything in her memories. For all her life, Shego had been in control of her life and had bowed to no one if she was so disinclined. She had faced all manner of gruesome or hideous sights that would have loosened the bowels of any man twice her age without flinching. But the idea that there was something out there that had been so traumatic that her own mind had blocked it out for its own protection had never before occurred to her. Now that it had, the pale villainess was having second thoughts about the merit of seeing that room and reawakening long-dead memories that might just be best left buried and forgotten in the past. Besides, what purpose would it serve to see what had actually happened? By Kim’s word, Drakken was already serving the most just form of punishment possible. Imprisoned in his own mind, the little man was incapable of escaping and could do nothing but think and consider the consequences of his past actions and schemes. It would benefit no one for Shego to dig up her past demons – it would only cause more pain when all she wanted to do was put all this nastiness behind her and focus on the very young, very beautiful woman now keeping pace at her side.
But still…
“Tell me everything you saw…”
It was something she had to do.
“Alright, Shego…”
And Kim knew it.
Shego stared at the massive iron door.
The locked barrier seemed more suitable for a maximum security prison – the kind of place that was foolishly built to try and contain Shego herself – or a bank vault than a laboratory. There was a tiny window in the door – barely large enough to peek into the room beyond. The door must have been half-a-metre thick at the very least, but nothing Shego couldn’t blast through.
“So, this is Drakken’s little shop of horrors,” Shego reached up a bare hand to trail her fingers across the steel-reinforced door, sneering as her touch left behind five thin trails of molten metal that instantly began to run straight down along the surface, slowing gradually as they drew away from the impressive source of heat. “Did he really think he could keep me out of here? He didn’t even try to plate it with his alloy.”
“Well,” Kim coughed suddenly. “You’d have to know that this place was down here before you could break in.” She looked back down the short, dimly-lit and filthy hallway that led this way from a tiny elevator that seemed just a little longer than a standard medical gurney. The undersized lift had been surprisingly well-hidden and had carried them down over a hundred metres before stopping and opening up to this invisible level. It seemed that the elevator travelled to this floor and this floor alone, but Kim wasn’t so sure she could trust this place at face value anymore. Drakken had proven himself to be far too devious and sinister to be taken lightly. No longer, however, “I mean, I’ll bet you wouldn’t have ever thought to check in his room for the only access to this place – especially if you actually fell for his story that I was the one who did this to you.” She waved one hand at the already-cooling trails of liquid metal that Shego had created in the door.
“Probably not.” Shego frowned, “And never under his bed – that’s just sick on so many levels.” She shuddered visibly at the thought. God, what that man might have done in that bed is something I shouldn’t have to think about. Ever. “What made you think to check there?” Shego lowered her shields enough to allow Kim’s natural scent-flavours to ease her revulsion. “I mean, you had to be at least as disturbed as I was by what might have been going on in that bed, so where did you get the stomach to check out what was underneath the damn thing?”
Kim grinned, not disturbed in the least, apparently. “Considering the fact that he sleeps with a teddy bear, footie pyjamas, and a stocking cap, considers chocolate-tomato milkshakes to be comfort food,” she winced at the very idea, “And probably couldn’t pick up a woman – or a man, for that matter – to save his life…there’s probably not too much going on in his bedroom beyond sleeping.”
Shego felt a slight wave of embarrassment wafting off of her partner’s mind. “Oh, really?” She crossed her arms as she levelled a serious look at the redhead.
Kim shrugged sheepishly. “It was an accident really,” she relented. “I found Drakken’s last supply of mutagenic formula in his bedside table and I may have gotten a little…upset.” She paused, “I swear, as soon as I saw those vials, the pieces that I’d seen in his mind just fell into place and I lost it. For an instant, I really considered going back to the hospital and finishing what I’d started, but I stopped myself.”
“Good girl,” Shego muttered seriously. “That explains the splintered bed and the general chaos that became of his room since I left it. It almost looks like a tornado went through it…” She raised her eyebrow at Kim, receiving nothing but a heated blush of shame. “No kidding?” the green-skinned woman found her eyes widening at the unspoken revelation, but she shook her head and moved on without commenting. There’d be enough time to discuss the scope of Kimmie’s powers later. “Seriously, though…” She thought about Kim’s words. “I think I would have liked to serve out some old-fashioned rage and revenge on that bastard, but I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself afterward.” Shego glowered at the locked door and then glanced curiously at the woman beside her. “I thought you said you broke down every door in this place?” They hadn’t seen a single door since they’d left her rooms; all that had remained of the dozens of steel-plated barriers to Kim Possible’s search were numerous open doorways filled with tremendous puddles of slowly evaporating water. “I gotta tell you, Kimmie,” Shego smirked suddenly, “If we actually end up taking this place as a base of operations, we’re going to be spending a bundle to replace all the doors you’ve melted. I mean, half of the doors in this place wouldn’t have even been locked.”
Kim rolled her eyes at this criticism. “Okay, first of all – I was still a little pissed so locked or unlocked it made no difference, and second – I didn’t melt them, I turned them into water. There’s a difference.” A slight tang of unease bled into her mind’s flavour. “I came down here and looked through the window, but that’s all I did. I didn’t think it would be right for me to barge in and steal more of your memories without your permission, particularly the bad ones.” When Shego merely canted one eyebrow at her, the heroine relented. “Maybe I was a little afraid of what I’d see if I opened that door.”
Shego nodded, accepting the honest answer without comment. “Well, I’m a little afraid too, but I don’t back down.” She raised her hands to blast the door apart.
“Wait.” Kim reached up with one hand to pull Shego back. “You don’t want to damage anything that’s in there; let me.” At her partner’s silent nod, Kim’s other hand came up to press against the solid iron-and-steel surface.
A moment later, a spider web of ice crystals had formed under Kim’s hand and began to spread across the whole door, bringing with it a ripple of ice that transformed the thick barrier into a sheet of frozen water. Then, as Kim continued to concentrate, her eyes half-closed, a second transformation swept through the mass of ice and Shego suddenly found herself staring straight into a scene out of a horror movie as the ice under Kim’s hand turned to a wall of standing water, giving them an unobstructed view into the laboratory beyond.
There were counters and cabinets all around the walls of the small room, surrounding a white-tiled floor with a couple tables around a medical bed. It didn’t appear as if there were any other doors or windows in the lab, making the bright fluorescent lights the only available light source in the room – that and a massive light with five bulbs that was suspended on an arm from overhead and hung so it was angled straight at the bed in the centre of the room; for medical purposes and the ease of visibility of course.
And, speaking of the bed…
Shego’s mute observation of Drakken’s secret lab was interrupted by a loud splash as Kim pulled her hand away from the crystal clear door, leaving the sheet of water susceptible to the effect of gravity. “Here you go, Shego.” Her voice was little more than a quiet mumble as she tried not to disturb the thoughts she could sense running through her partner’s mind.
Shego only nodded her thanks to the redhead and stepped over the wet threshold and into a room she had absolutely no memory of ever seeing.
Kim might have been right about this room having not been cleaned. Dust hung in whisper-thin blankets over every surface and the air had the coppery bite of dried blood. Looking to the bed and eyeing the wisp of cobwebs that clung to the bars underneath, Shego saw stains of crusted brown and black dotting the sheets at about the halfway point of it and the railing was half-melted at the same places, having sagged slightly at one point and then cooled before it could break off completely.
Only one of Shego’s hands was gloved, and it came up to brush against the blood-stained sheet, disturbing the almost nonexistent layer of dust that may have been there for the last seven years. There was no way to really be sure. But, as the pale woman’s gloved fingers ran across the black streaks of dried blood, whether or not the room had been entered recently became irrelevant as an image rose unhindered and unwanted in Shego’s mind
Lying on this very bed, hands engulfed in the fiery inferno of twin stars, Shego gazed up in terror as a face masked in false concern swam into view. She could make out no details, consumed in the agony of her burning hands as she was, but those dark, almost black, beady eyes would stay in her memory forever, seared into her mind but unattached to any particular face – reserved only for the darkest of frigid nightmares.
It was the very epitome of the faceless terror that haunted children’s nightmares.
With a start, Shego removed her hand from the dusty, bloodstained sheets and resisted the impulse to flee from the lab at the greatest speed possible. There might be answers here, answers that Shego would not allow Kim to find alone. Knowing what happened in this very room, they were each all too likely to need the support of the other to survive this.
Still, Shego stared down at her bare hand, surrounded by the same emerald glow that she had carried for seven years. She remembered waking up that day in the infirmary:
(((flashback)))
“How are you feeling, Shego?”
Eyes closed, Shego turned towards the voice. “Water,” she managed to croak in a raspy, dry voice. She thought she recognized the other voice, but the last thing she remembered was…
A cold glass was held to her lips, forestalling her trek into her memory. “There you go…” The voice was quiet, warm…safe. “Now, can you tell me what you remember?” There was a soft creak as the other sat back in a chair.
Shego risked opening her eyes, vaguely remembering books she’d read where that action was almost invariably a bad idea.
Reality proved to be no exception. With a groan of protest, she screwed her eyes shut against the offensive and painful light and instead drank deeply from the cup offered to her. Ice cold water slid down her throat, soothing in its freshness. When she felt the cup being taken away, she tried to remember, feeling her forehead tighten as her eyebrows drew together…congregating to discuss the matter perhaps. “I was…fighting, I think.” She felt her lips twist into the tiniest of peaceful smiles. “It was the most fun I’d had in years.”
Ever since before Mom died…
Shego opened her eyes slowly, braving the mercilessly bright light so she could make out the face of her companion. “Who was she?” The nineteen year old looked up into a pale blue face…her employer. Dr Drakken…she remembered now – she’d hired out her services to some nobody scientist with inferiority issues and a grudge against his old High School friends. He’d offered money, and she’d accepted, seeing it as a way to have her needs taken care of so she could focus on what she liked most: fighting.
“Her name is Kim Possible,” Drakken offered quietly, “She’s a cheerleader who spends her free time freelancing as a vigilante. She was in that Plant to stop us from stealing those canisters of Radium
Shego lay back in the bed and tried to remember more. She didn’t recognize where she was, but that didn’t matter to her. She thought about the fight instead.
Kim Possible.
It was an odd name to be sure, unique; but damn did she know how to fight… The girl couldn’t have been more than sixteen years old and still she’d been able to do better than hold her ground against Shego, the woman of a thousand fighting disciplines. She’d gone up against more than her fair share of martial arts masters, but nothing had even come close to what she’d faced in that waste disposal plant. That girl had been a tiger…she’d had a lot to learn, that was certain, and her skills had been pretty raw, but the talent was there. Given time and practice, this…Kim Possible could become quite a rival for Shego – maybe even surpass her. Add to that the fact that she’d clearly enjoyed going toe-to-toe with Shego and that was one agent for law enforcement everywhere that would no doubt become a thorn in the sides of villains everywhere.
God, I hope I get to tangle with her again…
There’d been more to that fight than the kid’s skills, of course. That girl had been dynamite on the inside…the mental side. Holy jeez… The scents and flavours that had come off that girl’s mind had been…damn…heavenly. Shego thought she’d experienced some incredible scent-flavours in her life, but Kim Possible’s emotions were nothing short of stellar.
“What happened?” Shego’s voice was quiet – almost silent as she realized she couldn’t remember leaving the site of their battle.
The wave of unease and concern that washed over her from her employer was almost enough to make her gag. God, I’m glad he’s paying me enough to put up with that.“I’m sorry, Shego.” Drakken looked away guiltily, standing from the cushioned, wooden chair on which he’d been seated. “I tried to stop it in time but…your fight, Shego – it – there was…an accident.” He motioned to her hands and she looked at them for the first time since waking up, suddenly acutely aware of a slight…heated tingle, as if the mismatched black and green gloves on her hands were heated from the inside.
Without comment, and without being prompted to do so, Shego began to slide the gloves off, curious at the feel of warm, thin metal on the inner surface but refraining from asking questions. “What happened?” She asked once more before the black leather came away from her tingling hands.
“Kim Possible kicked you into one of the stacks of waste drums and one of them burst open…”
The rest of her employer’s hushed reply went unheard as Shego’s eyes fell on the carnage that was her bare hands.
They were covered with long, deep slashes – like they’d been sliced at a hundred times with a razor blade. Most of the cuts were scabbed over now, but a couple of the deeper ones were still bright as blood continued to flow out slowly. The insides of Shego’s gloves were probably ruined now, but that wasn’t really a priority one concern right now. It was then that Shego realized something else.
There was an eerie green glow around her hands, and it gave Shego the most ominous feeling. Something bad was about to be said…
“…I was able to inject a healing factor into your DNA before the mutation became fatal, but I’m afraid I wasn’t able to reverse the effects…”
Mutation? Shego’s gaze travelled up the length of her arms to take in the new pale tint to her skin…a pasty, pale green that was quite a bit lighter than the glow in her hands. But her eyes were inevitably pulled back to the scabbed and lacerated redness of her glowing green hands.
“…enhanced strength, some improvement in speed, but most of all you seem to have developed the uncanny ability to harness and control Plasma energy. It’s a state that exists beyond the traditional three elemental…”
“My hands will heal, won’t they?” Shego interrupted Drakken’s inane and boring explanation. He was probably speaking more to himself than to her anyway.
“Oh, most definitely,” the man standing beside her reassured, “Thanks to the healing factor I introduced, your hands will heal without scarring, as will all but the most serious of wounds in the future. Unfortunately, however, the mutation progressed too fast for me to completely counter. It didn’t kill you like it should have, but-.”
“What are you saying?” Shego burst out impatiently, her ire rising with the man’s damned rambling. “Tell me!”
Wordlessly, Drakken held out a short steel bar to her, his intention clear.
Humouring the man with a roll of her night-forest eyes, Shego reached out one hand to grasp the bar, gasping in horrified astonishment when the thick rod grew hot in her hands and began to melt, sagging as Drakken released it quickly before the heat could travel to the portion in his grip. As rivulets of molten steel ran between her fingers and dripped to the floor, uncomfortable in their heat but not damaging or painful in the slightest, Shego felt her horror and fear mounting and the semi-liquid mass slipped from her hand to slapagainst the floor.
“No.” She breathed the word, staring at her hands with a renewed sense of growing anger at the unfairness of the universe. “No…”
“I’m afraid so,” Drakken countered softly, sympathetically. “You have come into a tremendous power, Shego – but it has come at a great cost.” Too high, was Shego’s only thought as Drakken nodded his head at the droplets of steel still falling from her closed hand. “Your Plasma has no off-switch; this will happen to anything you touch with your bare hands.”
The blue man shrugged wearily, his mind radiating a faint sense of guilt. “I’m so sorry, Shego. I’ve come up with a couple of materials that aren’t affected by your Plasma, but beyond that…”
It didn’t take a genius to see where he was going with this. Personal relationships were to become a little more…complex now that she could melt at a touch. But yet, this didn’t give her reason to hate the one responsible for it, did it? No, circumstances had been out of her control – out of Kim Possible’s control. The fiery redhead had no way of knowing what would happen – she was no prophet. But still…some part of Shego’s mind continued to pull at her. “He, Dr Dee – it…it wasan accident,” she had to know, “Right?”
The answer wasn’t very encouraging. “I wish I could say for sure, Shego.” Drakken shrugged helplessly, “Really, I do. But all I know for certain is that Kim Possible left without seeing to your injuries. It’s not quite the noble attitude one comes to expect from the heroes of the world, is it?”
Shego felt horror course through her heart, carving a wound so deep she could lose the world in it. No, it couldn’t be true, could it? She couldn’t quite reconcile the image of Kim Possible as a heartless, ruthless heroine. The kid had been a pure heart – that much had been so clear. But on the other hand, what reason did Drakken have to lie to her – to keep her from trailing after Kim like a moonstruck teenager? Please, Shego had given up on heroism ever since that huge blow up with Hego, so this blue boy could stand to have a little faith in her.
It was then that Shego felt a fire burst into being , rising within her heart at the conclusion she’d begun to draw – blazing hotter than the Plasma that now wreathed her hands. It was all a front. Kim Possible was nothing more than a spoiled little schoolgirl tramp who’d decided to take on the bad guys for kicks.
So, Princess,Shego thought with narrowing eyes – you want to take on bad guys? Well, congrats, you’ve just made the baddest one out there. She felt her fingernails biting into her palms as her anger grew and swelled, becoming something that was almost alive in its own right – a monstrosity of tremendous power that lived only to bring justice and vengeance for Shego.
Your ass is mine, Kim Possible
I’m going to kill you for this…
(((end flashback)))
“Shego?”
Shego shook herself from her daze and looked around to see Kim standing beside her with concern and worry etched in her eyes. “Are you okay?”
Without replying, Shego turned away – refusing to face the woman she had wronged so deeply, so long ago. How could she have let herself get duped so easily, so willingly? How could she have so quickly forgotten the promise she’d sworn over her mother’s grave? She felt a single tear make its way down her cheek but made no move to wipe it away. Turned as she was, Kim had no way of knowing how shaken her reawakened memories had left her and it would have been nice if it could stay that way.
Of course, hiding emotions became just a little difficult around a telepath.
A long slender arm slid around Shego’s left shoulder from behind but she recoiled from it, ashamed at all the hurt she must have caused this amazing, innocent woman with her piercing emerald eyes and her warm, emotional heart. But, just as Shego escaped Kim’s left arm, she felt the right on her other side, and they both met around her body, hemming her in and lightly pinning her arms to her ribs as she became surrounded by this girl in the same way that she was enveloped in the beautiful and inviting flavours of Kim Possible’s heart and mind. Shego could sense the unfathomable mixture of emotions rising off the young woman that held her, but what she could sense most of all, what had stilled her thoughts and allowed her to be captured in this embrace was the one gift she knew she didn’t deserve – Love.
It was a selfless, undemanding, unquestioning love, for which Kim asked nothing more than that Shego accept it as it was given.
“No,” Shego continued to struggle against Kim’s hold weakly. “Don’t touch me,” I don’t deserve you – anyone else would be better for you. Despite the enormous pain it caused her to create that thought, Shego knew it was just as true as an arrow shot from the bow of Robin Hood.
“Maybe so,” came the younger woman’s whispered reply, “but I love you, Shego. I want you – not anyone else.”
Shego nodded silently, knowing that would be the answer from her all-forgiving Princess. She’d tasted the love this girl had for her, inhaled its fragrance, and could think of nothing that would taste or smell more heavenly. But still, how could Kim be so damn forgiving? How could she so easily forget that Shego had hated her for so long without reason?
“It wasn’t your fault, Shego.” Kim’s hold around her shoulders tightened before loosening completely as she pulled back to take a quick glance around the lab with its bloodstained sheets and dust-kissed counters. “I think we’ve seen enough here – let’s go.”
“No,” Shego shook her head as Kim’s discomfort filled the air with a bitter aftertaste. “Not yet.”
Kim sighed, “Alright – we’ll search a little more.” She turned her attention to the drawers in the counter closest to the bed. “But remember Shego – I’m here if you need me.”
Shego nodded without replying, and they both set to work methodically searching the lab.
It was a few minutes later that Shego heard it – a quiet rattle of metal parts. At first, she thought nothing of it, but when a jolt of fear and determination floated through her senses, Shego couldn’t help but turn around and look.
Kim had set the box of vials on the bed, opening it to reveal all three glass capsules to the tense silence of the room. In one hand, she held one of the green vials, absently turning it over in her hands as she stared at the object in her other hand:
And over.
It was a shiny, silvery injector gun, meant for administering vaccinations and other such fluids straight into a person’s circulatory system.
And over.
Kim looked from one to the other – the vial to the injector. The fear in her mind was being beaten back as her determination grew by leaps and bounds.
And over…
Without warning, Kim popped the vial into the injector and brought the device to her own wrist, her intent all too clear.
NO! Before she could pull the trigger on the dangerous chemical, Shego had already lunged forward and grabbed the tool in her bare hand, tearing it from the redhead’s grip even as the metal of the injector began to smoke and grow white-hot in her hands. “Don’t even think about it.”
Kim looked up – startled, “Shego…?” She hesitated, thinking her next words through carefully. “It’s not fair,” she pleaded finally, knowing that Shego would never feel what she felt – the odds of actually figuring out the cure to Drakken’s absurdly complex chemical were unfathomable. “It’s not fair that you can’t touch anything.” The injector in Shego’s hand was quickly melting and trailing harmlessly down her hand to drip onto the bed sheets below. “If all I have to do is give up my own hands just so you can feel me, don’t you think I’d gladly pay that price?”
Shego shook her head stubbornly, “Not at this price, Kim – trust me, it’s way too much.” She reached up with her green-gloved hand and plucked the vial from the deformed injector, placing it back in its case. “We’ll find another way,” she shut the case with a sharp snap. “I know we will.”
Kim chuckled lightly at that, her amusement a sudden and refreshing change from the overpowering bitterness of her fear and sorrow. “And since when were you an optimist?”
Shego smirked thinly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She turned away, “Let’s get out of here, Kim – you were right; we’ve seen enough.”
Kim motioned for Shego to lead the way, “Now you know – don’t ever doubt a female Possible.”
The villainess couldn’t help the quiet laugh that escaped her, “I’ll try to remember that one.”
“Good,” Kim followed her out of the room and into the dark, little-used hallway to the elevator. “I would have done it, you know,” she spoke suddenly in a quiet voice.
Shego glanced over at her partner, “I know.” It means so much for me to know that, but I would never ask you to do that for me…I could never let that happen to you…
It was on the way up to the surface that Shego remembered something. “Yesterday, when we were talking to Queen GJ,” she smirked at the nickname. “What were you thinking about? We were talking about ways to take her company down.” You’ve got something, Princess, she though;and it’s just the thing to take my mind off of this mess. She grinned as she remembered the playful mischief in Kim’s mind when they’d been having that conversation at Chez Cora’s. “Now – spill.”
Kim stared at her partner as they stepped off the elevator into Drakken’s room. “What are you – oh!” She burst out laughing, her sudden burst of pleasurable playfulness and glee washing through Shego’s senses like a cleansing vapour. “It’s stupid, really,” she calmed down a little, “it’s just, we were talking about,” She stepped out into the hallway. “We were talking about how to make GJ waste time and money, and I suddenly thought of something we could do.” She broke off in a small fit of uncontrollable giggles. “What if,” she paused, turning an evil smile on her partner, “What if we kidnapped a couple world leaders or celebrities and just dumped them of in the middle of nowhere for a week or so? We could either come back and rescue them, or simply give their location to GJ sometime later.” She raised one eyebrow at Shego, “What do you think?”
Shego stared dumbfounded at the grinning redhead before slowly shaking her head in disbelief. “I think you need to lay off the coffee, Kimmie.” She returned Kim’s smile suddenly. “I like the idea, but you’re clearly too excited about it.”
Kim snorted and crossed her arms – offended. “Can I help it if I’m brilliant?”
Shego grinned at her as they came up to her green and black painted door – the only intact door in the lair, apparently. “No, I guess not.”
“So, how’d you like the bike?”
Kim looked up from her quick inspection of Shego’s sleek machine, and the brief expression of pain that flashed behind her eyes was all too clear to the villainess.
Shego reached up to lightly touch the layered make-up on her cheek. Yeah, I wish I didn’t have to hide, too – but this is the life I live…
“It was all right,” Kim replied finally, shrugging casually. “It was missing a little something, though.”
“Oh yeah,” Shego turned to face her as she felt the sudden appearance of no small amount of mischief in Kim’s mind, “And what might that be?” She couldn’t help but smirk at the redhead bent over her bike.
Kim stood up without replying and simply turned to look at the taller woman. After returning her smirk with a wider grin, she snatched up the glossy black helmet from where she’d set it on the ground after running off to deliver Drakken to the hospital. Then, she tossed it to Shego, and let loose the full power of her radiant smile, “someone else behind the handlebars.” She laughed as her partner was so visibly shaken by the sudden rush of mirth and excitement her mind released. “I mean, don’t get me wrong – it’s a beautiful machine and I loved driving it, but what I love more is holding on while you drive it.” Kim’s eyes sparkled. “I’d prefer to hold onto you while you drive, but you know…beggars can’t be choosers.”
Shego slid her bag off her shoulders. “Well, you don’t have to beg because your wish is my command, Princess.” She held the black leather back out and wasn’t at all surprised at the speed with which it was taken and slung over Kim’s back, “my – you’re eager aren’t you?”
Kim shrugged, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “I just want to get away from here; we’ve had enough stress for a lifetime.”
Shego smiled, “day off? I could do that.” She pulled her helmet on and flipped the faceplate up so she could still talk. “I would like nothing better than to take a day or two to get away from it all.”
“Alright then,” Kim grabbed her helmet and slid it on. ‘We could both use some downtime,’ her voice suddenly echoed inaudibly inside Shego’s head, somehow sounding more like her voice than her actual voice…like the words were coming from a source closer to her heart than her vocal chords were able to tap. ‘What do you say we head back to my place? We could have that discussion about misusing my telepathy.’
At the mention of Kim’s…unique abilities, Shego felt a strange warmth rising in her chest, heating her very soul it seemed. It was actually kind of…comforting – knowing that Kim was so close to her that they could communicate on so intimate a level. Of course, rationally, it didn’t make any sense at all, but Shego liked being able to feel Kim’s touch on her mind when they talked like this; it made her feel safe – something that she was unaccustomed to having to search for outside of her own power.
‘To be honest,’ she responded to Kim’s telepathy in kind, wondering off-hand how she was able to do this at all if she was only an empath. Must be something to do with me being so close to a telepath right now…like putting a paperclip to a magnet? ‘I don’t really mind this. You’re right about this giving us an edge when we need to talk during a mission. The truth is you only surprised me when you started talking to me like this; I was never really angry at you. I know you’d never snoop around without my permission.’
‘Thank you,’ Kim replied sincerely. ‘So, how about it – my place?’
‘Lovely idea,’ Shego threw a leg over her bright green beauty, starting up the one-of-a-kind engine and snapping her faceplate shut just as a pair of slender arms wrapped around her waist from behind. The bike sank just a little as Kim mounted up. ‘You want a straight course or the scenic route?’
Kim’s arms tightened a little and a helmeted head came to rest on Shego’s shoulder. ‘Whichever helps you to heal from the past day.’ A little thrill of pleasure brushed across Shego’s mind. ‘And I wouldn’t mind holding onto you as long as I can.’
“Scenic it is,” Shego spoke mostly to herself as she gunned the Ghost’s compact, powerful engine. The tires spun for half-a-second before catching, and then they took off up the street – away from the gaping doorway to the Montreal Lair.
‘So,’ Kim’s mental voice floated through Shego’s thoughts a few minutes later. ‘Tell me about yourself.’
Shego smiled behind her faceplate. What do you find so fascinating about me? ‘What do you want to know?’
‘Everything,’ Kim’s hold relaxed as she focused only half of her attention on keeping her balance on Shego’s bike. She didn’t really need that much attention to stay on – all she had to do was follow Shego’s movements as she navigated a collection of twisting, forest roads. ‘But,’ she clarified, ‘you could start with something simple – like your childhood – tell me about your mother. What was she like?’
Shego closed her eyes for a moment. Mom… Again, Shego felt a flush of shame colouring her cheeks as she remembered what she’d allowed herself to do for the three years she’d worked for Dr Drakken. She had been consumed by a hatred that would have engulfed Kim whole if she’d ever managed to capture the spry little firebrand.
‘There’s not much to tell,’ Shego thought about her mother – her hair, her smile, her confident, graceful walk – as if the world revolved around her every whim –, her bright, entrancing green eyes…
‘She sounds like a beautiful woman.’ Kim remarked.
Shego was startled by the intrusion into her mind, but not angered or annoyed in the least. ‘Yeah,’ she thought, back to the times she’d shared with her preferred parent. They’d been happy times – some of the happiest of her life –, but there had been far too few of them for Shego’s liking. ‘Yeah, she was.’
‘Oh.’ Kim’s reply pretty much summed up the implication in Shego’s last statement. ‘I’m so sorry…tell me what happened?’ The girl’s hesitation made it clear that she was unsure how welcome her question would be.
Shego knew her partner would never dream of holding it against her if she declined to answer. They were far beyond the point of testing each other’s heart and soul, but Shego knew this was still a test for herself – of her trust. Could Shego bring herself to trust someone with the many secrets about herself? Curving around a gentle bend in the road, Shego took in a single breath of the patient, selfless love in her companion’s mind and came to her decision.
In the end, that was all it would ever take for her mind to be made up.
‘She worked at a bank in Go City and a couple idiot bank robbers decided to drop by one day.’ She swallowed back the tears more easily than she should have been able. ‘Mom got caught between the cops and the robbers.’
Shego felt a burst of sorrow and pain from the younger woman seated behind her, but no pity.
There had never been any pity from her Princess.
‘How did your family take it?’
Shego sighed as the memories grew darker. ‘Not too well; Dad started drinking and fell into a depression, and Hego flew off the handle and got the crazy idea that we should become heroes in order to prevent that kind of thing from happening to other families like it had to us.’
‘That’s noble of him.’ Kim pointed out matter-of-factly, ‘I think he went a little overboard on it, though.’
Shego smirked, ‘You’re right – on both counts – only don’t tell anyone that I said that.’
‘Cross my heart,’ Kim replied honestly ‘What about you? What did you do to cope with the loss?’
‘I’d like to think I handled it better,’ Shego paused uncertainly. ‘She-,’ was she really ready to reveal more about her life? They were getting very close to the very foundations of Shego’s life – the things that had done more to shape her than anything else in her Life; was she ready to give this to Kim – this knowledge of exactly how Shego had been born from the ashes of Sara Jenkins’ soft and broken heart – to finally give someone that one link back to the girl she had been before? ‘Mom and I weren’t always on the best of terms. We had some really big arguments…’
‘Well, who doesn’t? That sounds like the typical mother-daughter relationship to me.’ Kim shifted her grip a little on her partner’s waist. ‘But I’m guessing there’s more to it than that.’
‘You want me to tell the story or not?’ Shego laughed at the embarrassment that flowed over her from Kim’s mind. ‘That’s my girl – where was I?’ Shego eased up off the gas as she merged onto a crowded highway, ‘Son of a…what time is it?’
‘Around eight,’ Kim’s head nuzzled a little closer to Shego’s shoulder – as much as the black helmet would allow at least. ‘What, did you forget about morning traffic into the city?’
‘You just had to live on the island, didn’t you?’ Shego’s amusement probably took a great deal of bite out of her words. She slowed down to join the creeping lines of cars and trucks. She probably could have blasted the engine to full speed and weaved through the lines of vehicles, but she didn’t. Much as she and Kim might have enjoyed the ride, Shego’s persona couldn’t really afford to attract that kind of attention. ‘But Mom and I, we’d never really seen eye-to-eye on one thing,’ besides, the traffic would give Kim a chance to get to know her partner a little better. ‘She was a Pacifist,’ Shego smiled thinly, ‘you can imagine how often that was discussed around the dinner table.’ She sighed again, ‘Dad loved her, I know that, but he called her a coward so often it was sometimes impossible to see it. I talked with her so many times about it, trying to understand how she could believe it so strongly when the whole world seemed set against her and her convictions.’
‘She sounds stubborn – like you.’ Kim joked, her mind’s peaceful, easy affection lightly washing over Shego’s senses.
Shego smiled at the better memories that floated up in her head. ‘Stubbornness is never changing even when you know you’re wrong, Kimmie.’ She took a moment to change lanes, ‘What Mom had was a confidence that I wanted for myself – an undeniable…power over the world around her. She might have been a Pacifist, but weak she was not.’
‘Pacifism doesn’t make you weak, Shego.’ Kim admonished lightly.
‘Oh, I understand that all too well. Mom was the strongest person I have ever known – even you, Pumpkin.’ Shego grinned as she tossed that one behind her. ‘But, honestly, while the rest of my family belittled and ridiculed her for her beliefs, I couldn’t help but admire and respect her for standing up against all that crap.’ She slipped her bike down to a lower gear as the traffic built up a little more. ‘That was the kind of confidence I wanted.’
Kim’s arms tightened around her, ‘I think you got it in the end.’
Shego grimaced, ‘Yeah, well – I think I would rather have had her alive and well than have inherited her personality, thank you very much.’
The arms around her waist didn’t loosen like they normally would have. ‘I know, Shego.’
‘You know what the funny thing is?’ Shego groaned with relief as their exit came up. ‘I never really understood what true Pacifism was or why Mom was so willing to put up with all the shit my family gave her – not until she died.’ She shook her head at the horrible example of irony. ‘So, while my idiot brothers took up Heroism to cope with it, I lived my own life without regrets and took up Mom’s cause – as best as I could.’
A rush of understanding blossomed from Kim’s mind. ‘That’s why you’ve never killed.’
‘That and the fact that the penalties for theft – even theft on a global scale – are much less severe than for murder. You can do a Hell of a lot more before getting into really serious trouble and you get more of a name for yourself when you’re a thief without a body count.’
‘Oh, I’ll bet.’
As Shego pulled into the parking lot at Kim’s apartment building, Kim only had one question left about her partner’s childhood – for now. She waited until Shego had brought her bike to a halt in the spot beside her bright green Honda before pulling her helmet off.
“You never did tell me what that comet actually gave you.” After so much time spent in silence the sound of her own voice in her ears seemed somehow…strange. “Was it just the fighting ability?”
“Yeah,” Shego pulled her helmet off and ran one hand through her short, crimson-dyed hair. “That’s about all it was – thought I’d gotten the good end of the deal when I woke up and I wasn’t bright pink or neon orange or something.” She sighed and looked at her reflection in the passenger window of Kim’s car beside her bike. “I didn’t have to take half-an-hour making myself look normal if I wanted to blend into a crowd. I was normal. But, I guess I couldn’t outrun my fate – I turned green some other way.” Her fist clenched at the unfairness of it all…
“For what it’s worth,” Kim used her key to open the back door into the building, “I stopped seeing your skin colour as strange a long time ago. It’s just, you know – you.” She held the door open for her partner, studying her normal-looking complexion. “If you weren’t an international fugitive, I’d try to convince you to ditch the makeup. It’s – strange – to see you so normal…”
Shego snorted, “I’m sure I should feel insulted that I look more normal when I have green skin.” She followed Kim to the stairs, a bright smirk coming to her face. “Never the easy way with you, is it?”
Already up the first flight, Kim halted and turned to glance back over her shoulder at her partner. “I’m trying to seduce you, aren’t I?” She smiled cheekily as she turned to take off up the stairs at a dead run, leaving Shego standing at the bottom with a stunned look on her face.
Excuse me? “Why you little-,” the pale-skinned thief stormed up the stairs, a wide grin spoiling her mock-anger. You seduce me? As if, Princess…
Author’s: Well, there you have it at last…Chapter 17. For those of you counting, I didn’t mis-count my chapters. I’ve just decided to count that interlude earlier as a chapter to limit my own confusion. In other words, whatever chapter ffnet tells you it is, that’s the chapter I’ll call it by. So, hope you enjoyed it, and any and all thoughts are welcome, positive or negative. See you next chapter…